Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brendan

When I was an altarboy, we had a retired Msgr who lived in our parish. He said Mass everyday at 8:00am, which was interesting, as a parish had a regularly scheduled 8:30am daily Mass.

Msgr was done in about 12-15 minutes.

And this was the OF Mass.

Contrast that with the Masses I went to in rural Tanzania. A regular Sunday Mass was about 3 hours long. 4 Hours long if the bishop said it.

One Mass was 6 hours long, but that was the dedication of a new parish church, and a lot happens at those Masses.

Most of the people walk to Mass, some from up to 7 miles away. They carry their chairs too and whatever produce they are giving for the offetory, or donating for lunch afterward. So if they don't get several hours of preaching for the homily, they feel 'jipped'

They will then spend the next 3 hours cooking and having a communal lunch and socializing...and then walk home. Sunday Mass is an all day affair

That's beautiful if you ask me. I wish us westerners celebrated Mass in a more communal way. Though to be more specific, the Mass itself is fine, but I wish more western parishes did more to act like a community (not bashing my parish as I feel it is one of the better parishes in northern illinois, that I've experienced personally anyways)

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cathryn

It is natural for a Protestant to respond to a Mass as being very deficient if there is not a lengthy homily, since this is what they are used to. What is actually left is Calvary on earth, and yes an access to grace if we join ourselves with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is true of any valid Mass.

I hope you explained to your Lutheran theologian friend that the Catholic priest during the Mass in persona Christi is just a tool of Jesus Christ. He is human and full of faults, yet it is really Jesus Christ being the High Priest and Victim. It hardly matter how long the Mass is.

No. Lutherans are liturgical. Their liturgy is very much like the Mass in terms of mechanics (please no diatribes about validity -- that goes without saying.) They don't pass-out trays of grape juice shots. She was in a good position not to judge the conformity to the rubrics but on how people comported themselves during the Mass. As an outsider looking in, she was appalled. The Mass at my parish when my pastor celebrates is difficult. It really does appear that he is in a great hurry even though he goes out to breakfast right after. The Mass is pretty much as stripped-down as possible at my parish.

A retired priest I respect told me to always remember that the grace stemming from the Mass is always the same so long as it's a valid Mass. While that's certainly true I firmly believe that a person's ability to absorb that grace is strongly influenced in part by their entire experience at the Mass.

As I said, there will always be excuses. There is absolutely no desire or urgency by many priests to improve their celebratory skills (preaching, etc.) and it's largely due to the excuses. That's why many parishes never improve.

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintPatrick333

That's beautiful if you ask me. I wish us westerners celebrated Mass in a more communal way. Though to be more specific, the Mass itself is fine, but I wish more western parishes did more to act like a community (not bashing my parish as I feel it is one of the better parishes in northern illinois, that I've experienced personally anyways)

So true. Sometimes it seems like we are making just another stop on our busy schedules to pick-up a quickly dispensed carton of grace. I don't think that's very healthy.

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jegudiel

A retired priest I respect told me to always remember that the grace stemming from the Mass is always the same so long as it's a valid Mass. While that's certainly true I firmly believe that a person's ability to absorb that grace is strongly influenced in part by their entire experience at the Mass.

It's the will of God and our own dispositions in hearing the Mass that profoundly affect the measure of grace we actually receive. All the graces of Calvary are available at every valid Mass.

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Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Yeh,
I wouldn't like to be a priest for being criticised for taking too long or short for the satisfactory of who they are leading it for.

He may well have said it that many times that day/every day in his various visits and could be just another long list of masses for him. You go to that one and think it needs to be special and exactly right for you.

As for sermons an interegnum priest said his sermons in about three lines. Very to the point and didn't miss anything out. Just was able to get things said precisely. I personally didn't like that because it gave me no achorage in the week. Our new priest now takes average time each week and yes I like that more because shamefully, I do drift away and come back in my thoughts but not missed his message for the week. Sometimes my thoughts are triggered by what he said.

But for priests, fo rthe avarage priest, the one mass they say in church each day could well be a long list of many masses they've had to say that day and yeh sometimes justs gets all too much and am sorry its inconvienated you

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by blaskoman

Is there something wrong with this picture? of course I'd have to say that the Mass was valid, yet something just didnt seem right to me in terms of how quick the priest was. I was left wondering whether this priest does not hold the Mass in high esteem, that he seemed liked he had better things to do. His Sunday homily lasted 2.5 minutes!!!

Nothing at all wrong with the picture.

In fact, it is a great idea in some places.

My own parish has a daily Mass that lasts no more than 20 minutes.
It is followed by a lunch in the church hall.

There is a great deal of attendence from those that work and have only an hour for lunch.

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jegudiel

No. Lutherans are liturgical. Their liturgy is very much like the Mass in terms of mechanics (please no diatribes about validity -- that goes without saying.) They don't pass-out trays of grape juice shots. She was in a good position not to judge the conformity to the rubrics but on how people comported themselves during the Mass. As an outsider looking in, she was appalled. The Mass at my parish when my pastor celebrates is difficult. It really does appear that he is in a great hurry even though he goes out to breakfast right after. The Mass is pretty much as stripped-down as possible at my parish.

Nonetheless, while she might be an "educated" theologian, her education is flawed insofar as she hews to the protestant sect of Lutheranism. If she were TRULY educated and properly catechized, she would understand that the least reverent Catholic mass by FAR exceeds the most reverent "service" the lutherans have ever put on in their man made ministry.

I take the opinions of "educated" protestants on the mass with a grain of salt.

Quote:

As I said, there will always be excuses. There is absolutely no desire or urgency by many priests to improve their celebratory skills (preaching, etc.) and it's largely due to the excuses. That's why many parishes never improve.

That is impressive... I have never been able to look at a priest and determine that he joined the priesthood for a paycheck and is just sitting back fat and lazy with no concern to give glory to God or move peoples' souls... somewhere along the line I thought that the priesthood was a pretty good organization of men who have sacrificed A LOT.

I wonder how you developed this ability to determine peoples' private intentions, however, as I see no mention of such an ability included in any charisms anywhere...

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Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

the parish I grew up in had sunday mass in 45 minutes.

I've lived in and traveled to several different areas of the country since then, and I've never come across a mass lasting less than an hour. drives me absolutely batty, because the two things that make it so long are 1) the insistence on singing all verses of every song, and often having a "song of praise" after communion but before the recessional, and 2) homilies that are either ten minutes of repetition or of disjointed rambling. at least ten minutes of an engaging, relevant homily doesn't feel that long..

I've only been at one weekend mass that was over in 30 minutes flat. the priest was a fast talker and the communion line wasn't very long.

Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Our church holds more that 1000 people, at least half of whom receive communion, this is the Mass times for our "Sundays" : 6.00 am, 7.00am, 8.00 am, 9.30am, 5.30 pm & 7.00 pm - if you bear in mind that we pray the Rosary in the church before every Mass, you can do the math as to how long Sunday Masses are.

I have never had any doubt about the reverence of the Masses I attend.

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Re: while on vacation, the local church priest conducts daily mass in 17 minutes and Sunday Mass lasted 37!

Quote:

Originally Posted by promethius

Nonetheless, while she might be an "educated" theologian, her education is flawed insofar as she hews to the protestant sect of Lutheranism. If she were TRULY educated and properly catechized, she would understand that the least reverent Catholic mass by FAR exceeds the most reverent "service" the lutherans have ever put on in their man made ministry.

I take the opinions of "educated" protestants on the mass with a grain of salt.

That is impressive... I have never been able to look at a priest and determine that he joined the priesthood for a paycheck and is just sitting back fat and lazy with no concern to give glory to God or move peoples' souls... somewhere along the line I thought that the priesthood was a pretty good organization of men who have sacrificed A LOT.

I wonder how you developed this ability to determine peoples' private intentions, however, as I see no mention of such an ability included in any charisms anywhere...

Well said.

-ACEGC

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